Vicksburg National Battlefield
Driving from Vicksburg, MS to Rocky Springs, MS | Visiting Vicksburg National Battlefield | Driving & Camping on the Natchez Trace Parkway | January 2024
After the storms from the day before had passed, we woke up to a cold and blustery day in Mississippi. Driving South in search of sun and warmth was proving harder than we thought, but we weren’t about to give up and hide away from the cold. We enjoyed a hotel breakfast before packing up and moving back into the van. Our main attraction for the day was Vicksburg National Battlefield, located right across the street from the hotel. We drove over and Curtis stopped at the visitor center for stamps and info, while Charlotte and I wandered around the parking lot. Even with the cold weather, we were a bit disappointed to learn there wasn’t much in terms of hiking here, unless we wanted to road walk. We decided to just do the driving tour and make as many stops as we could to see the monuments or other significant sights.
Curtis: After capturing Fort Donelson in Kentucky and then defeating Johnston at Shiloh, General Grant’s last major obstacle in the West became Vicksburg. New Orleans and the Southern stretches of the Mississippi River were taken by Admiral Farragut in 1862 and into 1863, and Vicksburg remained the last link before the Confederacy was divided into two by the river. It was particularly difficult because of the surrounding swampy terrain, especially directly North of the city.
For the first half of 1863, Grant maneuvered and tried 5+ different engineering and tactical strategies to break, bypass, or otherwise defeat the Confederate garrison on the bluffs of Vicksburg. The final ruse worked. Grant gambled by marching/floating most of his Army South of Vicksburg and crossing near the town of Port Gibson and Grand Gulf. Once he had established a ‘beach head’ in Mississippi, Grant moved up the approximate route of the Natchez Trace to capture Jackson and break the supply lines to Vicksburg. From Jackson, Grant engaged Vicksburg from the East and after his initial assaults failed, invested it in a siege. From May until July 4th, the city of Vicksburg was surrounded with Grant to the East and the Navy to the West. As food became more scarce, soldiers began to get scurvy, and no relief forces able to break through, the Confederate commander parlayed for a surrender which took place on July 4th.
Believed by contemporary and historical scholars to be one of the most important battles of the Western theater, the outpouring of monuments sure seems to agree. We compared the shear number and enormity of monuments to Chickamauga or Gettysburg. Every state that had soldiers present at the battle erected a monument, and each and every unit had a monument. As we drove the long loop around the fortifications, we began rating the state monuments. Illinois won best of show – featuring an enormous rotunda and (presumably) all the names of every soldier from Illinois including unit division. Iowa (though we are quite partial as Iowans) won for best sculpture with rather ornate bronze casts. And worst state monument goes to Tennessee – featuring a lump of granite in the shape of Tennessee, which we concluded must have been designed by a 5th grader.
But best of all to see was the U.S.S. Cairo, a City-class river Ironclad, the only one of her class in existence and only one of 4 from the whole war. Built in Mounds City – just North of Cairo, IL – Cairo and her sister ships aided in the capture of Memphis and Fort Pillow. But during the Yazoo Pass expedition (one of Grant’s failed gambits), she hit a mine and sunk in the river to be covered in silt and mud until a NPS historian went out and found it in 1956 (he would later become the lead historian for the NPS).
Similar to the the Steamboat Bertrand, the mud and silt made the wreck into a time capsule, preserving thousands of personal and military artifacts. But, unlike Bertrand, the whole wreck was recovered, repaired and made into a museum. Unfortunately, the museum portion of the Cairo was closed for the day, but that’s a good enough reason to return (especially since there is a power plant nearby and I might need to come down here for work someday).
Jess: Once we were finished with our driving tour, we stopped to pick up some groceries and then carried on with our road trip. We didn’t have far to drive today — we decided to go just a half hour East to the Natchez Trace Parkway and camp at the Rocky Springs campground. We had stayed here almost 2 years ago while driving most of the Natchez Trace, and remembered enjoying the spacious, spread out sites in the free campground. I was especially glad to be sleeping in our warm van rather than a tent tonight! We had a pleasant and relaxing evening here, and enjoyed a long walk to the church and historic site where the town of Rocky Springs once existed.
